Life Happens When You're Making Other Plans...

When you think life is going in one direction then it takes a different turn...

Can't tell you how many times I've said "I'm never doing that..." Now, here I am nearly twenty years married with a kid. How about you?

Heading Indoors...

This year I remembered to bring the potted herbs on the back patio inside before they froze over.

Hopefully the plants will survive the winter indoors along with the citrus tree I picked up over the summer.

So far so good, it looks like the tree is developing flowers...might be able to pick our very own mandarin oranges...sometime next year. Don't know if I'm going to tell Natalia it can take up to nine months for fruit to ripen. She can't wait two minutes to grab an apple off the counter.

Not so fast lady...

I used to be able to snap a picture of Natalia at any time. Now, I'm lucky if I get her in frame at all. She loves the camera but likes to ham it up so much it's hard to get a decent photo of her without a hand or foot coming at me  at warp speed - most be all those karate lessons.

Anything but pink...

Natalia isn't the kind of girl who worships princesses, Barbie dolls and Disney fairy tales. Her Christmas list rarely contains anything frilly or pink. Natalia's the kind of kid who has to be told to wash her hands so her fingernails don't look like a mechanics. The kind of kid I have to talk into wearing any shade that even resembles pink. The kind of kid who rather skip a shower so the syrup and school glue can set in her hair. And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.

Now, that she's eight she understands that she has to take some time groom herself so she's half-way presentable but she knows I don't expect her to look perfect.  So, nowadays she does make an attempt to clean up for school but I let her slide at other times. I don't want her to ever obsess over her appearance. That's one of the many reasons I'm obsessed with the folks over at Goldie Blox an awesome company that creates cool stuff for all girls...not just girls like Natalia. Although the feisty blonde with the hammer in this commercial for their new action figure below sure reminds me of her...